The Vanishing Thief

But what passion? Hatred, anger, fear?

“How did you come to meet with him a year later?”

“He came up to me at a social event. He pulled me aside and he gloated.” The last word poured from his mouth like poison.

I glanced down and saw his hands were in fists. His rage against Drake made him a good candidate for the man’s abduction. But Drake lived in a very middle-class neighborhood. Under normal circumstances, these two men should never have met. “Why would Drake be at a social event with a duke?”

“He moves freely in society, befriending all the young people. He says his father was the younger son of a younger son, and his mother’s family was related to French royalty.”

“You didn’t share your knowledge of his thievery with society? As a warning, of course.”

“I should have.” His tone turned bitter. “I had no idea he’d continued with his crimes until the Duke of Merville mentioned after his daughter’s engagement party that certain items and Drake had left their lives.”

The Duke of Merville suddenly sounded less like an alibi for the Duke of Blackford’s coach and more like a fellow conspirator in a kidnapping. “When was this, Your Grace?”

“The party was over a week ago. Merville made the comment in our club a couple of days later.” He dismissed my question and his answer with a wave of his hand.

“Did the two of you determine a course of action in regard to Mr. Drake?”

“We asked some questions around our club. We found three more members who’d had similar experiences with Drake. He won’t be invited to any events this coming season, I can assure you.”

“You’re going to ostracize him? That’s all?” The man was accused of being a thief. Someone abducted him, and the Duke of Blackford’s answer to all of this was not to invite the man to the round of society parties and balls that would soon begin again? My middle-class sense of justice couldn’t begin to understand the duke’s idea of punishment. Once again I was thankful I wasn’t born to his class.

“It will make it more difficult for him to steal from us.” Any sign of his interest in our conversation gone, Blackford took my arm and led me toward the door. Firmly and quickly, but without discourtesy.

I dug in my heels, more questions churning my mind. “Who were the others who’d had thefts? And why only you, the Duke of Merville, and those three?”

“Surely, Miss Fenchurch, you don’t think I’m going to give you reason to burst into any more homes.” His tone said he thought I was exasperating.

Despite my best efforts, we were nearly to the door of his study. “You don’t think the matter of an abduction is going to disappear, do you?”

“It is, from my home. I’ve said all I’m going to on the matter.” He pulled open the door and hustled me into the hall. The butler hurried toward us. “Good day. Stevens, see Miss Fenchurch out.”

The duke let go of my arm, swung around, and entered his study. The door shut behind him with a firm thud.

I went to the front door ahead of Stevens, who seemed determined not to let me best him again. He needn’t have worried. Blackford had given me enough to work on elsewhere. Had that been his plan?

As the butler helped me on with my cloak and handed me my furled umbrella, I said casually, “I understand the duke has quite a collection of carriages he keeps in London.”

His eyes traveled toward the back of the house. “No, miss. Just the Wellington one and the ordinary coach.”

I nodded to him and stepped outside, unfurling my umbrella as I walked. He’d told me what I needed to know.

Two minutes’ walk in what was now a drizzle brought me to the mews in back of the duke’s residence, where a two-story stone barn and carriage house stood.

The carriage door, much taller than most along the mews, stood open, and I took a step inside. The shining carriage nearest the door was magnificent. Tall and old-fashioned, it was black from its massive wheels to the driver’s leather seat. The only spot of color was the crest painted in vivid colors on the door.

“’Ey, you can’t be in here.” A stocky man in rolled-up shirtsleeves, a rag in his hand, came around the side of the carriage.

“It’s beautiful. Are you the one who keeps it in such magnificent style?”

“Aye.”

“You are to be commended. It’s quite old, isn’t it?” I took another step inside, peering at the coach.

“Aye. The present duke’s great-grandfather was given ’er for service to Wellington in the war with Napoleon.”

“Do you get to ride on it?” I poured a helping of breathless wonder into my tone. At thirty, I was still young enough to bring out chivalrous instincts in most men. The dangerous duke was not most men. I hadn’t made up my mind on whether that was a good or bad thing.

“Aye. I’m His Grace’s driver. John Turner.” He nodded.

“Oh, you are? Fortunate man.” I nodded back. “I’m Georgia Peabody. I’m visiting down the road and they told me about this carriage. I had to come and take a look at something so beautiful.” Georgia Peabody made appearances all over London when Georgia Fenchurch didn’t want to call attention to herself or the Archivist Society.

“’Tis that, all right.”

“I’m sorry, I must be keeping you from your work. But could you open the door for me so I can take a peek inside?”

“I guess it won’t hurt. There, stand on the blocks so you can see in better. But don’t touch nothin’.”

Mounting blocks inside the coach house would have made it easy for me to climb inside if I’d wanted. “Thank you.” I gave him my hand and he helped me up a step before opening the door. I didn’t touch, because I could scour the inside with my eyes. Nothing seemed amiss.

“This must be difficult to drive in rain or fog.”

“No more so than any other carriage. You got to know your team.”

“And I imagine you’re a man who knows his team well, Mr. Turner.”

“Aye.”

“I have a confession to make. I saw this coach out last Thursday night. I thought it the most magnificent sight I’ve ever seen. Where were you going?” I put a sigh into my voice that wasn’t faked. I had a chance to learn something about the abduction carriage.

He frowned before saying, “Last Thursday? His Grace went to the theater and then to a late supper.”

“He must have kept you up late, sitting around in the dark and the weather. How unfortunate.”

“Not this time. The footman he took with us is the brother of a housemaid at Merville’s. She worked it so we was invited in to a late supper while their lordships were upstairs dining.”

“Leaving this beautiful coach and those magnificent animals in the rain? You must have had your work cut out for you cleaning them later.”

He gri